UFC
Anderson Silva disappointed in Lyoto Machida and Jacare Souza saying they'd be open to fighting him
Jan 22, 2015 - 9:20:03 PM Anderson Silva disappointed in Lyoto Machida and Jacare Souza saying they'd be open to fighting him

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Anderson Silva doesn't want to fight his fellow Brazilian competitors, and he's taken plenty of opportunities to express that sentiment. Because of that, he's not happy that men he considers friends in Lyoto Machida and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza have said recently they'd be willing to fight him.

Silva talked about that on a media conference call on Thursday, expressing his disappointment in their recent comments.

"Jacare' is my friend, Lyoto is my friend, but all the time guys don't talk the same as me," Silva said (transcribed by FoxSports.com). "When I go talk to the people in the media, I say I'm not going to fight Lyoto because he's my friend. I'm not going to fight Jacare because he's my friend. But when those guys go and talk to the media, Lyoto says 'I'd go fight Anderson because I go fight.' Jacare says 'I would fight because I'm a fighter.' My opinion, I don't like the position of Lyoto and Jacare. Because I'm not going to fight these guys because I'm training with Lyoto for a long time, sometimes I train with Jacare."

"When I go train with guys, I go to help you. I go help the guys. I put 50-percent of my energy to help the guys. When guys talk like this, I'm very, very, very, very disappointed... When guys give me these questions, I talk the same. Lyoto's my friend, Jacare and I train together, and I don't like to fight Brazilian guys, I don't like it. This is my opinion. I understand this is a sport and the guys are in the UFC to fight, but I don't like to fight Brazilian guys."

Penick's Analysis: At this point in his career, Silva has fought so many different fighters that he's under no obligation to fight his fellow Brazilians. That said, guys like Machida and Souza, who are trying to work their way to the Middleweight Championship, have to be willing to fight whomever the UFC needs them to fight to get that shot. That's a fundamental difference in the mindset from which they're looking at this situation, and so it's understandable why they'd express that willingness to fight Silva even as he doesn't want at all.

[Anderson Silva art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]